We had the good fortune of connecting with Cody Simpson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Cody, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
Efficiency. Efficiency is everything to me. Setting up my life and my work to be as streamlined as humanly possible has been the aim. Over the years, I’ve noticed how many people are “stuck” in their work, their relationship, their life. There’s no real movement, change or progress. To me, this is bordering on insanity, especially when they aren’t actively trying to do anything about it. At this point in my life, I can’t imagine staying in an uncomfortable position for an extended period of time without trying to do something about it. A lot of people think the idea of confronting a coworker or boss, or talking to HR or something of this sort makes you look like a “snitch” or a loser, so they sit in a position they don’t like with rules they don’t like and don’t say anything. They withhold their good ideas and they suppress their own potential, all for the sake of not having others judge them, or for the sake of sticking it to the man. It’s a very degraded way of operating, and I strive to do the opposite. When I notice an issue with something, I bring it up. When I think something might work a little better or a little faster this other way, I try it! I take action. People who take action get things done, help others, expand and make money. People who don’t, regress. Once I really sat down and realized that I wasn’t operating ideally on the job, had regular, massive backlogs, and wasn’t really doing anything to CHANGE the less than ideal work environment I was involved in, everything changed for me in a flash. I realized that I was STUCK, and I realized how STUCK the people around me were too, and I didn’t want to be like them. So, I started implementing systems to make things easier for my team and in sales at a large landscaping firm. Everything regarding your work CAN be organized and streamlined. Realizing that and then figuring out HOW to do that are the first steps to actually changing a STUCK condition. One looks at his work and divides it into individual items to take action on. If we’re looking at landscaping design/sales, we’re talking about clients/projects. An easy way to start would be to organize a pipeline to keep track of each client. Categories can be: lead, assessment scheduled, assessment completed, follow-up, closed, design done, routed to production team, lost. That’s the most straightforward first step, knowing where every client currently is in your pipeline. You check your pipeline every single day at the start and end of the day, and organize it as you go. This is not a difficult task. Next, you can have some sort of organization with your follow-up in particular, as there will likely be several people in that category, as most of the time people don’t just sign up same day and get moved to the closed or lost category. Some sort of sheet that notes how many times you’ve followed up with that particular client, the last time you did so and what happened, and the next time to follow up with them. You’d check this list every day to see who you follow up with that day (as in your last note). Another tool would be organization of Emails in particular. Maybe 2% of people I know actually have an organized Email, whether work or personal. Another thing that most people have a problem with that is hard for me to understand how they do it without going crazy. If your work Email is full of constant spam or mixed with your personal Email, it’s probably time for a new work Email address. Every time you get spam in your main inbox, block, report and delete immediately. Keep your Email inbox as EMPTY as humanly possible. The only things in your Email should be pending things that you are getting to VERY soon. Maybe up to 5 TOTAL Emails should be in there, depending on your industry. Everything that you need to save to refer to later should go into some semblance of a “Completed” folder. These are things you don’t need to reference regularly or even act on regularly. When you send something to Completed and then they reply, it of course comes back to your inbox! Then you reply and can put it back in Completed! This sounds tedious, but it is NOT. It keeps you sane and in control of your work. In the case where you need to refer to something from the past, of course, the search bar is right there and it wasn’t automatically deleted because you put it in the Completed folder! Throw away all spam. Keep anything you might need to reference, just not in your main inbox! A wiped clean inbox every day would be the most absolutely ideal for anyone. How refreshing it is. As I’m writing this, in all honesty, I have 1 work Email and 3 personal Emails in my primary inboxes. That’s a lot for me. As I’ve gotten more and more organized, I just keep good track of the different tools and systems, and don’t have to think about anything else. If I know where everything/everyone is at any time, how is it possible to lose track of things (and your mind)? Using tools like your phone’s calendar, Google Drive folders, Excel for statistics, etc. are only going to give you more and more peace of mind. Most people don’t walk into work every day and decide they want to be organized, and most people also waste A LOT of time finding things that they didn’t organize in the first place. Taking TIME out of every single day to organize things SAVES countless time for you and your coworkers. Whether you don’t want to be the weirdo who keeps track of things or not, it can only help. With how well you’ll be doing after you organize the things you KNOW need to be organized, you’ll notice a lot of envious people around you who are desperate to stay stuck. Ignore it and keep thriving. If you aren’t in charge, but you’re on your way to changing your area for the better, your statistics are up, and your managers still don’t listen to your ideas, it’s time for a new job! It’s time to make some real money! People who get products and are winners must be rewarded. People who can provide solutions to problems and make things better and faster for everyone must be promoted. Rather than your own personal organization and efficiency, a lot of which you’ll need to make simple systems for on your own, there are also ways to get a client moving through the pipeline to a close better and faster. One way is through education. We provide a free educational series to all who sign up for it on our website. It contains over 25 videos showing how the different aspects of landscaping and hardscape work properly. Educating your clients yourself is a huge factor in gaining trust with them. We also provide multiple articles on our website containing all sorts of landscaping information, as well as before and after photos, a funny section with our crew in it, our process from start to finish, etc. We provide as much information as humanly possible to show how dedicated we are to providing the best product in the industry and to educate our clients to the point where they’re already essentially closed the first time they reach out. Another HUGE part of our operating basis is that we have a massive contact form for each client to fill out before they even receive an assessment with a consultant. This contains sixteen in depth questions regarding their project. Most people are PLEASED to fill it out, with how we have it set up and with how much good information we already have given them with our free course and the information on the website. They already trust and want us by the time they fill out the form. QUALIFIED, professional buyers are what we want for our high end product, and these are the people who enjoy filling our form out and giving us all the data we need to evaluate if we’ll be a match or not. From there, a consultant texts the client for photos of the project areas, then they schedule an assessment within a week or so. We make notes, take photos and go over the job, and we send the quote on the same day as the assessment via Email. Once budget and scope are worked out, a finalized quote is sent and deposit paid. We do a walk through with the production team, consultant and client to turn over the project, and off we go. Having things set up like this on the client’s end and on the consultant’s end makes the entire project extremely streamlined, and when we finish, clients are over the moon (see our reviews). Put the work in to SET UP systems like this. By the time the automated or sub-automated systems are in place, your life, the client’s life, and the company’s life will be that much easier. It’s not about being lazy and working as little as possible, it’s about efficiency: getting the best possible product with the least amount of work possible, so as to make room for more work, expand and make more money. If you make every portion of a company extremely efficient with very simple systems like these, each area can then handle and produce more, the company can produce more, and massive expansion is then possible. As long as you have an honest and professional work force that is good at what they do and is open to change, there’s nothing you can’t achieve.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
We are Droughtscape, and drought-resistant landscaping is our primary focus. The main adjustment we’re looking to make throughout Los Angeles is the swapping out of grass front yards to xeriscape yards (extremely low water and low maintenance). Grass wastes a lot of water and requires a lot of maintenance, and most people don’t actually NEED grass in their front yard for their kids or dogs to play in (that’s what a private, safe BACK yard is for), so why not change it to something that looks nice and requires far less water and maintenance? Our general front yard xeriscape project that isn’t super elaborate would include removal of grass/soil, grading, installation of weed fabric, installation of colored gravel or similar, planting and drip irrigation. If budget allows, boulders, lighting, berms, etc. are some things that can be added for more aesthetics and different textures and features. With lighting, you get a “day” yard AND a “night” yard! We also work with most other outdoor constuction items, especially including demolition, interlocking pavers, fencing, etc. What sets us apart from others is our extremely streamlined process, our good communication throughout projects, and strictly the fact that our product is better than other teams’. The amount of complaints we get from clients regarding other contractors/landscapers is absolutely astounding. We embrace the fact that we ARE the best choice and are proud of it. The attention to detail of my workers exceeds even that of my own sometimes, and we’re just such a solid team, it’s almost unbelievable to most of our clients. If you’ve had work done by a general contractor or landscaper at any point in time, I’m sure there was more than one issue with your project. Problems are so ingrained in these industries, it’s just “normal” to be messy, install things improperly, not communicate well, not keep agreements, exceed budgets, etc. We’re proud to know that we are one of the very few honest and reliable contractors here in Los Angeles. We want everyone to know that every one of our team members is here to change the environment here in LA, but also to just brighten up the industry of landscaping with trust, good communication and care.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Being a landscape salesperson/designer, and primarily being a motorcycle rider, I’ve been out and about seeing clients all over Los Angeles for about 7 years, a lot of that time being 6 days/week. This means that I’ve tried a lot of different food all over LA, especially because bringing a sack lunch on a motorcycle can be gross in my aerodynamic backpack, and someone could steal my sandwich… Here are some of my favorite foods that I’ve come across:

Nashville Hot Chicken: Howlin’ Rays in Pasadena or China Town, or Dave’s for a shorter wait.
Smash Burger: For the Win.
Ramen: Ramen of York Blaze Ramen and Chicken Karaage lunch special until 3pm, or R101 Ramen for some great broth.
Mediterranean: Kabob Bowl on San Fernando combo bowl with yogurt cucumber (pricing here is fantastic).
Sushi: Sakura in La Canada. Doesn’t seem like a sushi specialist when you walk in, but Lord is it good.

For dinner, for good cocktails, good food and a good time:
Perch
Catch
Yamashiro
Bacari (either location)
Mother Tongue
Javier’s
Ka’teen
Highland Park Bowl
Barcade

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Entrepreneur, sales specialist and real estate mogul, Grant Cardone, has probably been the most inspiring to me since I started really changing my work behavior and operations. His sales courses and general advice helped me pave my own path to success, which I’m still traveling. I believe that blindly following anyone is a stupid choice for any individual, and I feel a lot of people make this mistake with their heroes, so I don’t just do everything he says and hope for the best. I’ve taken things from him that I agree with, start taking action on them and reinforcing them, and they’ve helped me dramatically. I think the biggest thing that Grant has helped me with is confidence, which is really everything, alojng with honesty. He talks a lot about pushing hard in sales and grinding all day on follow-up, which aren’t necessarily things that work in my industry, or simply aren’t things I’m necessarily great at. But what he has really helped me with is just my general ability and willingness to TAKE ACTION. To take RISKS. How are you going to get better without breaking out of your comfort zone and trying something new? You literally cannot get better and better at something without trying and failing, over and over again. This seems generic, but the basis of these ideals is what helped me TRY those things I thought MIGHT work, instead of sit around, mope and complain like everyone else. Being able to step in front of anyone, who might have any type of attitude or outlook on life, and be able to talk to them and sell them anyways with utmost confidence, a lot of this ability’s foundation is thanks to Grant.

Another immensely valuable datum that Grant helped me with is that any salesperson or entrepreneur in ANY profession ANYWHERE needs to do his absolute best to convince himself that his product is the best out there. How else will he have the confidence to sell? It’s not about being arrogant or delusional, it’s about finding the reasons you or your team are the best in any or all areas and enhancing and embracing those strengths. If your team is riddled with incompetent criminals who can’t do better, learn, or change for the better, it’s time for a new team. Be with professional, honest people. It’s rare to find a whole, perfect team, but you can find or create a group of individuals who are hardworking, want to help people and are open to trial and error. With a team like this, maximum efficiency and expansion is possible, and with that comes money and security. As a salesperson or entrepreneur, if you can’t sell yourself that you’re the best, and you can’t find the reasons why you are, who ARE you going to sell? Do your best to create a team that functions efficiently. If you are very successful in your own area and you’re doing your best to change the whole team for the better, and they won’t listen, you are probably better off looking elsewhere. That’s what I did, and it was the best personal and financial choice I’ve ever made.

Sales always gets a bad rap. If anybody even thinks of the word “sales” or “salesperson”, they might get a chill down their spine or a bad feeling in their gut. Everyone has had at least 90% poor experiences with “salespeople”; and the 10% that were good, they don’t really remember because they don’t actually think of them AS A SALESPERSON. The problem is that salespeople have a misunderstanding on what selling is. It’s not about pushing, shoving, pressuring and badgering with sleezy shortcuts and “techniques” that make everyone uncomfortable. It’s about educating, caring, communicating and problem-solving as a team (with your own team and with your clients themselves). It’s about experience and honesty. Honesty that your team IS the best. Honesty and help within your team. Honesty about which options are the best. Honesty that you DO care about your client. And honesty that you are there for THEM, not for you. Nobody wants to talk to the person desperately TRYING to sell them something, they want to talk to the who actually listens. Listen to people and observe them. Learn. Change. Win. There’s no better feeling than being honest with someone and them believing you. How strange! There might be some excitement in a lie, but that almost immediately turns directly into regret. No more shortcuts. Put in the work to get more efficient. Be honest with yourself and others. Listen, pay attention and learn. Be willing to fail. Be willing to change. Then, watch yourself soar.

Website: www.droughtscapeLA.com

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Image Credits
NBC Channel 4 News

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